Report on monarch butterfly dropoff cites work by Reppert at UMMS

January 31, 2014

In an interview on WBUR radio in Boston, Chip Taylor, founder of Monarch Watch -- a website devoted to tracking the declines in monarch butterfly populations -- cited the work of Steven M. Reppert, chair and professor of neurobiology, as the scientific basis for understanding how monarchs travel and how that ties into recent declines.. For more than a decade, Dr. Reppert's lab has used anatomical, cellular, molecular, electrophysiological, genetic and behavioral approaches to more fully understand the biological basis of monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) migration, with a focus on the butterfly's navigational abilities and its distinctive circadian clock.